Last week we hosted our fourth and final PACE event of the year on the topic of ‘Future Gazing 2019’. We had an amazing line up. From Digital Strategist at Dell, Nkiru Uwaje to Global Content Manager at Sage, Beatrice Whelan. We also had our very own David Lockie as a speaker, and the day was hosted by David Savage of the Tech-Talks podcast.
Now, let’s summarise what you may have missed.
Future, now – David Lockie.
In David’s talk, he shared some useful insights as to what could help your business in the future. One of the key things is value. To aim for success in the future, businesses need to change their mindsets and determine what their value-transfer really is. You need to be able to produce valuable content at an intense “pace” (hello, wordplay), at the right time and in the right channel.
The future is a million websites, one for each user. Especially Gen Z, who expect lots of content, on demand, wherever they go. But how are you going to make every user feel special? This is where the power of data comes in, look at what it’s telling you and make it a part of your business strategy and decision making process. If you’re able to tell that customer “I see you’ve been with us 3 years”, BOOM, instant boost in quality of service.
It wouldn’t be a Pragmatic talk without mentioning WordPress now would it? No matter how hard you may try to escape it, it’s inter-connected with everything – it’s unavoidable. WordPress, more than any other digital platform allows you to run cheaper and faster experiments, which lead to almost immediate return on investment.
Here is a link to Dave’s slides.
Furthering Human Progress – Nkiru Uwaje
Nkiru gave us a really insightful talk on how we’re able to use technology to confront some of the challenges we see in the environment.
The answers lie within, say it with me, data. She brought up some interesting topics, the first being vertical farming. It’s a more sustainable way of doing farming that involves technology that leverages IOT, data analytics and cloud computing.
Another element brought in with the 4th industrial revolution is bioprinting organs. It’s about using the analytics of genes and cells in order to replicate and create a model by using 3d printing.
The predictive market value by 2030 is supposed to be 3 trillion dollars. We need to look into its forecast and determine the potential that people see in it. We can use platform technology like blockchain or cloud in order to build a far more trusting future for all of us.
Here is a link to Nkiru’s slides.
The future of social media – Beatrice Whelan
In order to stay ahead of the competition, it’s important to look into the future and avoid the areas that won’t pay off in the long-term. We can do this by looking into past and current trends to apply them to an imagined future.
Beatrice states that the golden ages of social media are over and that we are now in what she calls the “post-social age” where the old rules no longer apply. What happened during the 10 years of the golden ages, the businesses that were on top have matured and peaked. We’re moving into a new era, where the new disrupters will create the new social channels that’ll determine this “post-social” age.
There will be more niche social medias to give users a better sense of community. There will be more meaningful conversations than what there currently is on huge public platforms.
These new disrupters will have to create a new business model, in order to regain people’s trust in social media.
Here is a link to Beatrice’s slides.
You’re all caught up now. If you want to watch the videos of this event, check out our Vimeo page here.